


Dance in the Moonlight

by CartoonAddict564



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, Ghosts, ML Spooky Month, Necromancy, Spooky AU, Werewolves, juleka is a ghost, marinette is a witch, nino is a werewolf, rose is a necromancer, spooky ml au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 12:46:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8328517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CartoonAddict564/pseuds/CartoonAddict564
Summary: Rose Lavillant, necromancer in training, has put together a wonderful night out for herself and all her magical friends at the Francois Dupont College for Witches, Wizards, and Magical Creatures. Her stated goal is to help the freshly-turned werewolf Nino Lahiffe to get away from his worries, but even more than that she wants to make sure that Juleka Couffaine--the ghost that Rose raised from the dead and fell madly in love with--has a perfect evening. Unfortunately, not only does Nino's distress at the waxing moon prove greater than Rose anticipated, but when she can't find a spell to enable Juleka to actually taste the food and otherwise participate in the festivities, she feels like she's failing everyone she cares about. But with her friends behind her and her loving girlfriend by her side, Rose might just be able to overcome her fears and anxieties, call upon the magic of life and death running in her veins, and ensure the night is just as wonderful as she had planned.





	1. A Night Out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thelastpilot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thelastpilot/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Monster in the Room](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8184842) by [Thelastpilot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thelastpilot/pseuds/Thelastpilot). 



> This is set in the universe of the ML Spooky AU created by TheLastPilot and described in part here: http://thelastpilot.tumblr.com/post/150243937111 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

A crisp breeze swirled through the streets of Paris, sending dried autumn leaves clattering against the gratings and gutters of the city and rustling through the grasses in all the yards. The streets, however, were still full of pedestrians despite the brisk wind, and everywhere people were heading to restaurants, of the opera, or warm, candle-lit cafes to wait out the chill with a loved one--or even simply chasing errant hats blown off their heads as other passerby cheered them on. The streets did not feel cold despite the wind, and nor did they feel dark even though only a few final rays from the rapidly-setting sun remained to illuminate the sky. The people, rather, made them feel warm, and rich, and alive in a way that seemed to promise happiness and contentment to everyone with the good fortune to be out in the streets of Paris that evening.

 

And for those lucky enough to be out with the girlfriend that they loved more than anyone else on earth... well, the streets of Paris were practically heaven. 

 

Rose Lavillant hummed merrily as she walked with her friends down a busy road in the Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighborhood of Paris, home to many famous cafes which all seemed to be buzzing despite the autumn chill. "I," she began, slipping her hand through that of the girl next to her and savoring how her heart seemed to skip a beat when said girl moved a step closer. "Had a _really_ fun evening!" She turned to said girlfriend. "What did you think of the concert?"

 

The girl in question, Juleka Couffaine, put a hand to her chin in mock-thought. "It was pretty good," she said at last. "But I didn't like that song about an evil necromancer summoning ghosts to haunt his enemies."

 

"Well, it's not like Jagged Stone could have known he had a ghost in the audience," teased Rose.

 

"That wasn't the mean part. He made necromancers sound like jerks who just want to rule the world. Whereas the necromancer I know..." Juleka moved right next to Rose, sending a tingle up the shorter girl's spine. "is _way_ too nice to be involved in anything like that."

 

Rose's cheeks lit up with her namesake color. "I could be a mean necromancer if I wanted to!" she insisted. "I could--I could summon a horde of undead puppies and bunnies to distract everyone with how cute they are, so nobody would notice when I took over city hall and instituted a despotic regime! A regime in which I would change the city's official color to pink and declare that I have the right to pet any cute animal in the city, even if the owner doesn't want to share!" 

 

Juleka chuckled. "I stand corrected. The world is truly fortunate you're not inclined to use your powers for evil, oh mighty necromancer."

 

Rose brushed a few wisps of blond hair out of her eyes and beamed at her girlfriend. The two weren't the only supernatural beings in their group, of course; every student in College Francois Dupont was magical or abnormal in _some_ way or other, and the fourteen friends who had gone out for an evening on the town were no exception. Many of the students needed glamour spells just to set foot outside the campus walls--it would be a disaster if a mundane saw Juleka's true form as a blue, floating, occasionally translucent ghost, or Adrien Agreste's pointed ears which denoted his cat-sidhe lineage, or the bandages wrapped around the mummy Sabrina Raincomprix--and even those like Rose herself who didn't need glamours were unusual in some way. But no matter what powers or spells the other students could cast, Rose knew she would never find anyone as magical to her as Juleka. Not just because Rose--a budding witch with strong inclinations towards necromancy--had summoned Juleka herself, drawing the goth's spirit from the land of the dead and bringing her back to Earth. But because Juleka was kind, and sweet, and loving, and beautiful, and quite possibly the most fantastic girl anywhere in the realms of the living or the dead. What powers could compare with that?

 

The two looked at each other, Rose watching a soft smile stealing over Juleka's face, and knowing--but not caring--that a similar one was forming on hers. "We should do this more often," the necromancer said. "We--"

 

"Yeah!" Rose turned, startled, to the front of the group, where Le-Chien Kim was calling back to her. The zombie had a big smirk on his face as he glanced back at the others. "We should. It's too bad we keep having to cancel because _someone_ keeps setting off windstorms whenever she goes outside and gets her off-campus privileges suspended for scaring mundanes. _Alix_."

 

Alix Kubdel, the wind elemental whom--as far as Rose could tell--was constitutionally incapable of sitting still for more than five minutes at a time, crossed her arms and had the nerve to look affronted. "Hey, if people can't keep up with me, they shouldn't be challenging me to races, _Kim_. Just because I whupped you--"

 

"And practically blew the mayor's toupee off when you flashed past him," added Sabrina.

 

"Yeah, but that jerk deserved it." Alix pumped a fist, eyes gleaming. "He called me a hooligan. I just wanted to show him what a real hooligan is!"

 

"Of course, we could just leave her behind next time," drawled Chloe Bourgeois. The sphinx somehow managed to maintain her haughty, regal look despite the best efforts of the college's glamour specialists. "There's no rule that we _all_ have to go out together." Behind her, Sabrina Raincomprix nodded so rapidly that her bandages rustled against each other. "I'm sure she can entertain herself with one of her silly races."

 

"No way." Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the group's strongest witch and its unofficial leader, looked back at Chloe. "We can't leave Alix behind. It wouldn't be friendly." She winked. "Besides, she's the only one who can get to the concession stand and back during intermissions before shows start up again. And who wants to miss a bunch of songs waiting in line for cotton candy?"

 

Before Alix could respond, Adrien suddenly stopped short, almost causing the kids further back in the group to bump into him. "Hang on," he said. "We're all forgetting the most important thing." He swiveled around. "Nino. Did you dig it?"

 

Everyone fell silent, even Chloe, and Rose turned with the rest of them to look at Nino Lahiffe. The student was one of the newest addition to the college as well as the magical world at large--he'd been bitten and turned into a werewolf not long ago--and as far as Rose knew, this was his first time voluntarily going out into a big crowd since he'd been changed. She felt herself tensing as she searched the back of Nino's head--he was facing the other way, towards Adrien and Kim--for some sign that he'd had fun, and even the familiar tingle of Juleka's hand slipping into her own didn't allay her fears. "Nino?" she asked. "Did--"

 

"It was primo," said Nino, and when he turned to look at the others Rose saw a bright grin on his face. "Seriously. The music was way rad, and just getting out again was sweet. Yeah, I was scared my wolf would go whack with all the loud music, but I knew you guys wouldn't let me do anything crazy, so I could just listen to the tunes and not stress over going hairy and hurting someone." He hesitated. "Thanks so much--"

 

"No problem, dude!" Adrien slung an arm around Nino's shoulders. "We're here for you. But you should really be thanking Rose--she's the one who planned all this out." Rose blushed again, but Adrien just chuckled as he pointed Nino at her. "Granted, the rest of us did have some other good ideas--"

 

Alya Cesaire raised an eyebrow. "Your idea was to spend half the day snacking on fish and cream, and the other half chasing balls of yarn."

 

Nino laughed louder at that, clearly at ease, and Adrien's eyes gleamed. "Oh yeah? Well your idea, little Miss Kitsune, was to set up that ridiculous maze/riddle/scavenger hunt thing all over town!"

 

"What's wrong with that?" Alya twitched in a manner that Rose knew from experience meant her tails were waving behind her, hidden from the mundanes only by her glamour as they swished about. "Everyone loves riddles."

 

"It's more the nature of your riddles," said Max Kante--the group's resident mad scientist, who had personally stitched Kim together from various corpses and then reanimated him as part of a science experiment--as he adjusted his glasses. "I'd solve them all in five minutes, and the rest of the group would be completely stumped. At least, that's what happens 85.71% of the time you state a riddle."

 

"Well, maybe you all need to try harder!" Alya's eyes gleamed. "And I came up with some really good ones too!"

 

Rose let the conversation wash around her and lift her spirits. True, she did feel more at home in the catacombs--with her summoning circle, and her magic supplies, and the comforting walls of the dead all around her--than she did on the surface, but her friends could make even the open air feel as comfortable and safe as the tunnels where she lived. "And it's not over yet!" she declared. "Now we're all going to Les Deux Magots!"

 

"Les Deux Magots?" Adrien gasped in mock-horror. "But Rose! They're the single most popular hot-chocolate restaurant in all Paris! Surely we'll be waiting for hours!"

 

"Nope!" said Rose, drawing a voucher from her pocket. "VIP pass. We can skip the line and move right on to the delicious hot cocoa!" 

 

There were a few cheers from the others, including Nino--whose smile had, if anything, grown at the mention of hot chocolate--and Marinette immediately began directing them towards Les Deux Magots. Rose let the others take the lead, walking in the back of the group with Juleka, and 'accidentally' swinging her hand into the ghost's every few moments. "This is perfect," she murmured.

 

"How'd you get the pass?" Juleka asked as she 'walked'--drifted, really, but the glamour covered that--alongside her.

 

"I was checking Pere Lachaise Cemetery for new spirits last month when I bumped into one that was really upset. She told me she'd died suddenly and she really wanted to say goodbye to her true love, and... I mean, I couldn't say no to that." Rose smiling winningly. "Turned out her love is a manager at Les Deux Magots. So I summoned her for him, they talked for a few minutes, and he was so grateful he gave me a 'skip the line' pass." She clasped her hands together. "But... could you maybe not tell Miss Bustier? I could get in a lot of trouble for showing a ghost to a mundane without permission and--"

 

Juleka's response was to quickly hug Rose. Her hands slipped through Rose's body, filling her with that wonderfully cold, tingling sensation that made Rose feel like she'd been blasted up into the clouds. "You," she murmured, "are the kindest person in the world. I love you, Rose."

 

Somehow, Rose felt like she was flying even higher.

 

#

 

"...and why'd we have to see stupid Jagged Stone anyways?" Chloe groused as the group exited the restaurant with big thermoses full of hot chocolate. "XY was playing, and he's way better, not to mention _way_ more popular. He just went platinum!"

 

Les Deux Magots was a cozy single-story restaurant with bright lights streaming from the windows and lighting up the large patio area, inviting passerby to gather within its boundaries and sip some of the finest chocolate to be found anywhere in the region. Decades prior it had been famed as the preferred restaurant for artistes and literati, serving patrons such as Hemingway, Picasso, Joyce, and Albert Camus, and even though it no longer had such illustrious clientele, its fame and quality ensured that it never lacked for customers no matter the hour or the weather. In fact, it had actually been somewhat difficult for Rose and the rest to work their way through the other patrons just to reach a waiter that could accept Rose's pass and get them their drinks on the spot. But work through them they had--with the help of a few murmured Curses of Unease from Marinette that subtly encouraged other patrons to get out of their way--and now they stood at the corner of the patio with all the hot chocolate they could want.

 

Marinette rolled her eyes at Chloe's remark. "That's because he's a siren and he cheats. It's easy to get big crowds when you just brainwash all the mundanes into buying your CDs."

 

"Jagged Stone's a siren too!" Sabrina interjected. "Does that mean _he_ cheats?"

 

"No, because he doesn't!" Marinette shook her head furiously, and Rose giggled at how seriously she was taking this. "He only uses his magic to catch your ear and get you focused on what he's playing, but all the actual music's really awesome! XY just forces people to listen to the same four chords over and over again and then walk away thinking they liked it." She grinned. "In fact, I bet you can't name one thing about XY's music that you actually like. Lyrics, melody, instruments, anything. Name just one thing he's good at."

 

Chloe hesitated. "I, uh..."

 

"I like how happy I was when I bought his latest CD!" Sabrina chirped. "Or when I went to his last seventeen concerts! Or when I threw out all my other music and books and stuff because XY told us he was the only entertainer his fans needed! That felt _great_ , and I really liked feeling like that!"

 

Everyone looked at each other, and then Max drew a notepad from his pocket. "Nathanael, it's your turn in the rotation to un-brainwash Sabrina."

 

"What?" Nathanael Kurtzberg, the only male mage in the group, groaned. "I un-brainwashed her last month!"

 

"Yes, and since then she was re-brainwahsed by--in addition to the siren XY--three 'charm person' spells, two kitsune, a love potion, a vampire, a gumiho, a huli jing, a mundane human with a coin on a string..."

 

Rose couldn't help but laugh as Max continued on. "Poor Sabrina," she murmured to Juleka, raising her cup of hot chocolate. "I wonder why she gets brainwashed so much?" 

 

"I really don't think she has much brain to wash in the first place," drawled Juleka, and Rose laughed again despite herself. "Anyways. How's it taste?"

 

Rose sipped and closed her eyes in pure pleasure. "It's really sweet, but there's just a touch of bitterness to contrast it," she said. "And the whipped cream is light and lemon-y and really really tasty--"

 

"And all over your mouth," noted Juleka. "Upper lip."

 

"Oh!" Rose giggled and brushed it away, but her smile faded as she looked at Juleka's face. Even with the glamour masking her true self, she could see the other girl's longing. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I--I really tried to find a way to let you taste this."

 

Juleka did manage a smile at that. "I know how hard you tried. Don't worry about it."

 

Worrying wouldn't help, of course--Rose knew that as well as anyone. But when Rose looked at Juleka sneaking long glances at the thermoses of chocolate everyone was holding, and when she listened to Adrien raving about how this was the most delicious thing he'd ever drunk and he was going to find some way to get the College cafeteria to serve it, and when she thought of Juleka obliquely mentioning that she hadn't had chocolate in over a century and she really wished she could have just one morself... it hurt. Juleka was her girlfriend, and she, Rose, should be able to get her girlfriend the things that would make her happy. "Still..."

 

"Rose." Juleka moved closer and rested her hand just above Rose's. "Seriously, this isn't a big deal. You have no idea how happy I am that I'm out of the land of the dead and back on Earth with the sweetest girl I've ever met. I don't want chocolate, Rose. I want to be with my girlfriend." She cupped a hand under Rose's chin, and Rose tilted her head up to meet Juleka's eyes. Even under the glamour they looked somehow more than human, a deep, rich red that captivated Rose with their beauty. "And I want my girlfriend to be happy, because she's a wonderful person and she deserves it. So." Juleka gently guided Rose's hand back to her thermos. "Enjoy your chocolate as much as you can. I promise you, right now, that's _all_ I want."

 

Rose looked down for a moment, wondering--not for the first time--what she'd done to deserve someone as kind and tolerant as Juleka. "You're the best, Jules," she murmured.

 

"Flatterer." Juleka chuckled and then sat next to Rose. "Actually, I was meaning to ask. You said yesterday you had a lead on kava root. But I guess you didn't find any?"

 

After intensive research, Rose had found a spell which would allow Juleka to become corporal for about sixty seconds--but it could only be triggered by burning kava root, one of the rarest herbs Rose had ever worked with. "No," the necromancer sighed. "It's super hard to get it now that they're calling it a narcotic--there's all kinds of import controls. The apothecary Nathanael told me about yesterday only had a few bundles. And by the time I got there _someone_ had already bought them all for use in an Egyptian ritual." She shot a faint glare at Chloe, who had taken a jeweled mirror out of her purse and was admiring herself in it while Sabrina looked on. "But I'll keep trying."

 

"If it's that expensive--"

 

Rose immediately shook her head. "You're worth it, Juleka. I'll find a way to make it work."

 

Juleka didn't say anything, but a small smile appeared on her face, and Rose's heart soared again before she turned to check on the others--Juleka might be her first priority, but she _had_ planned this whole event and did have a responsibility to the others as well. And even if that hadn't been the case she'd still want them to be happy. It was just who she was. Fortunately, everyone did seem to be enjoying themselves, with Alya and Max rapidly exchanging riddles, Alix and Kim arm wrestling, Mylene (the class dryad) and Ivan (its magma golem) cuddling against the cafe's wall, Nino...

 

Nino was sipping his chocolate and chatting with Nathanael, but when Rose studied him more closely, his eyes didn't seem quite right. They weren't unhappy, exactly, but they were flicking back and forth a little more rapidly than they should have been, moving from Adrien up to the night sky and back again. Except he wasn't looking at the night sky, exactly, he was specifically focusing on...

 

On the moon.

 

Rose took two steps towards Nino before catching herself; if Nino really was uneasy but trying to hide it, confronting him might just make things worse. Instead she moved towards Adrien, who was watching Marinette as she etched a sigil in the foam of a thermos of hot chocolate; as Rose approached, she heard the witch claim to Sabrina that the magic sigil would make the chocolate taste _way_ more delicious. "Hey, um, Adrien?" she asked. "Does the moon hurt Nino even when it's not full?"

 

"The moon?" Adrien glanced away from Marinette towards Rose. "It doesn't hurt him, but seeing it used to remind him that... you know. Every month it makes him go all furry. That's why he didn't go out at night when he first got here unless it was raining or cloudy so he wouldn't see the moon. I think he got over it, though."

 

Juleka, who had followed Rose, drifted over to him. "I don't think so," she murmured, nodding at Nino. "He seems pretty tense."

 

Adrien turned to his best friend and watched for a moment. "Yeah. Guess not." He sighed and heaved himself to his feet. "Nuts. He was doing well too, but I know his wolf's not always a huge fan of crowds, so maybe it's a little more worked up than usual after the concert. Might make him more sensitive to the moon." He glanced up at the waxing crescent. "Think we should go inside?"

 

Rose began to nod, then paused. "Is there anything we can do to help him more permanently?" she asked instead, noting distantly that Marinette was now watching their conversation while Sabrina drank her magicked-up hot chocolate. "It'd be awful if he could never go out in the moon again. He'd never be able to go to firework shows, or watch sunsets, or go on romantic moonlit picnic dates with the girl of his dreams..." She trailed off and blushed as the others snickered at her. "What? It's a very serious concern! What if he wants to go out with some beautiful princess but she won't be with anyone who doesn't take her on moonlit dates? True love could be in danger!"

 

"The horror," drawled Juleka.

 

Adrien grinned, though his smile soon faded as his brow wrinkled in thought. "Actually, now that you mention it, there might be something we can do... but we'll have to skip the other stuff you had planned. You okay with losing the s'mores and the charades?"

 

"To help Nino? Of course!" said Rose at once. "Just tell me how I can help."

 

"We just need to go somewhere special," mused Adrien. "I can handle most of it from there--although I might need a little magic support. Can you back me up?" At Rose's crisp nod, he beamed. "Alright then. Let's do it!"

 

The cat sidhe shoved his chair back with a loud scrape on the cobblestones, then hopped up on the table, struck a dramatic pose, and turned to address the other students. "Alright, everyone, we've got one more stop tonight!" he announced, his classmates turning at his commanding voice. "So finish up your chocolate and follow me!" 

 

Rose smiled as the others began to get back into a group. Then Juleka murmured in her ear, "Didn't you spend a week going all over town to find the best artisanal marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers for the s'mores?"

 

"The s'mores?" Rose shrugged as she thought back to the hours she'd spent shopping and taste-testing. "I did, I guess. But this is more important, right? And--"

 

Whatever she was going to say next was cut off as Juleka embraced her, and even though her touch was only tingles and sparks on Rose's skin, to her it felt like the warmest embrace in the world. "Like I said," murmured Juleka, "You're the sweetest person ever."

 

Rose blushed her namesake color. Distantly, she was aware of Alix, Alya, and Kim chuckling at her, but somehow that didn't seem important. "Thanks," she managed. "I..."

 

But she couldn't continue. She was helping Nino, she thought, and doing a good job of it... but she wasn't helping Juleka. She could make Nino happy, she could give everyone else a great evening, but she was still unable to enable Juleka to taste the chocolate she hadn't had in over a century. She looked down, unable to speak.

 

Fortunately, she was saved by Marinette, who clapped her on the back. "Backing up Adrien to help Nino?" she chirped, reminding Rose that she'd heard their conversation. "That's really nice of you, Rose. And just think--if you work well enough together, maybe he'll ask to be your familiar and then you'll both be able to cast way stronger spells!!"

 

Rose and Juleka both stared at her. "I, um," said Juleka after a moment. "Think he might already have someone in mind."

 

Marinette blinked. "He does?" she said of the cat spirit who--Rose knew for a fact--was always present whenever Marinette was casting spells, was always offering to assist her with her magic, and had offered to escort her to some local conference on witchcraft the previous month 'just in case' she needed a helper. "Really? Who?"

 

Rose looked at Juleka, who looked back at Rose. "Uh," said Juleka. "He might be thinking of--"

 

"Hey come on, guys!" called Adrien from the sidewalk beyond the patio. "You gonna take all night? We've got places to be! Things to do!" His eyes twinkled. "If you don't hurry we might leave you behind, and then the zombies'll get you!"

 

"I'm pretty sure Rose can deal with a few zombies, Adrien," called Marinette as she led Rose and Juleka out of the patio. "She summoned about a dozen of them when we needed some backup for the school pep team, remember?"

 

"Yeah, but these are punk zombies," joked Nino, whose cheer seemed a little restored now that he was standing next to his best friend Adrien. "Like, these zombies _hate pink_."

 

Rose grinned, then clenched a fist in mock fury. "Hmph. If some zombie don't know that pink is the very best color in the world, why--I wouldn't even summon them!" She crossed her arms. "Any zombies _that_ dumb can just stay in the ground and rot!"

 

"What about purple?" asked Juleka innocently, flicking her dyed streak of hair up. "How does that compare to pink?"

 

Rose blinked. "Purple is also the best color," she quickly amended. "And black is good too, of course! And..."

 

Juleka laughed, and the others did too, and everyone was smiling and talking merrily as Adrien led them back into the streets of Paris. But as Rose walked, she couldn't stop thinking of the chocolate that the girl had really wanted to taste but hadn't been able to due to Rose's failure to find the right spell. And when she glanced back at her girlfriend--now talking with Kim, the zombie, over what their respective types of death 'felt like'--she couldn't erase a tinge of unease from her glance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Les Deux Magots is a real cafe in Paris, and I can personally confirm their hot chocolate is sublime. You can learn more about the cafe at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Deux_Magots


	2. The Towers of Saint-Sulpice

The Church of Saint-Sulpice was the second-largest church in Paris, with only Notre Dame surpassing it in volume. Its two towers rose up from its front corners, forming a picturesque backdrop to the large public square and ornate fountain that had been constructed in front of the church. Now that night had truly fallen, the church, square, and fountain were utterly deserted, all gleaming with a strange coldness in the light of the waxing moon. It was eery, it was ethereal, and Rose had a feeling she'd be coming back to this spot with Juleka now that she knew about it. "Beautiful," she murmured, looking at the bone-white structure glistening in the night. "Really beautiful."

 

"Come on!" said Adrien as he ran up to the church. "We've got to get up to the west tower!"

 

Ivan gave him a blank look. "How're we supposed to get up there?"

 

"We're magic and there's nobody around, so we don't need to worry about looking mundane. Just use your powers!!" Adrien flipped a salute towards Ivan before springing up and, with cat-like agility, grabbing onto an outcropping. "Hey Kim, bet I can beat you to the top!"

 

"You're on!" the zombie roared, charging forwards and almost throwing himself against the church wall before he began hauling himself up with sheer, brute, zombie strength.

 

Ivan still looked annoyed until Mylene stroked his arm, eliciting a soft smile, and then gestured at a nearby tree. It bent obediently and wrapped long, thick branches around their waists, then began growing and lifting them up. Next to them a smirking Max was shrugging and manipulating his jetpack, normally hidden by his glamour but now poking out from under the illusion as he fiddled with the controls. And besides _him_ Nathanael was murmuring a quick chant to trigger a flight spell, while Alix just ran up the wall like the wind elemental she was.

 

Rose, however, was standing almost stock-still. "Um..." she said in a soft, timid voice. "Maybe we could... you know... go inside and take the stairs?"

 

Juleka gave Rose a sympathetic look. "Still having trouble with heights?"

 

Sighing, Rose nodded. She didn't know whether she'd just dealt with too many ghosts and zombies who had been killed in falls, or whether she just had a somewhat overactive imagination and couldn't stop thinking of how easy it would be to fall from a ledge and smash into the ground, but whatever the case, she'd had trouble with high places since she'd been a little kid. It was one reason she liked living in the catacombs so much--no sudden drops or great heights. "I know it's silly, but--"

 

"Hey. If you're upset, it's not silly. It's important." Juleka laid her ghostly hand over Rose's. "Let's talk to the others, okay? I'm sure someone'll be able to help."

 

Rose nodded and let Juleka lead as they approached the church. The only students still on the ground were Marinette and Nino, the former of whom was handing him something. "Flight charm!" she was saying as Rose and Juleka approached. "Just jump and focus on where you want to go. It's easy!"

 

Nino blinked. "Way cool," he said, putting what looked like an opal ring on his finger. "Thought I'd have to, you know. Get furry and force my way up--"

 

"Of course not," said Marinette gently. "We wouldn't ask you to do that. Now..." Her eyes twinkled. "I think Adrien wants to show you something on top of the tower. Want to head up?"

 

Nino nodded, but then glanced back at Juleka and Rose. "Oh, hey," he said. "You two waiting for me?"

 

Juleka gently urged Rose forwards, who took a couple more steps towards Marinette. "I can't fly today," she said, telling the truth in at least a technical sense. She couldn't fly _any_ days, because she didn't know the right spells and her stomach would revolt and force her back down even if she learned them, but Marinette didn't need to know that. "Could you lend me a flight charm too, please? I'll bake you cookies, or redecorate your room pink, or I could summon the ghost of a famous scholar to help you with your magic test next week--"

 

Marinette held up a hand, grinning. "You don't need to get me anything, Rose," she said. "Although I wouldn't say no to the scholar--but anyways. I'd be happy to take you up. I don't have any more flight charms, but..." She murmured a few quick words and a broom appeared in her hand. "If you don't mind riding shotgun, I think I can get you there."

 

Rose's stomach leapt into her throat, and she opened her mouth to say that she was actually quite happy on the ground--but then she looked at Nino. This was about helping him, she reminded herself, and Adrien had said he'd need her help for some of whatever he was planning. She had to get up top, no matter how scared she was. And besides, Marinette was a really good flyer. She wouldn't drop anyone off her broom... Rose hoped. "Okay!" she said with as much cheer as she could muster. "Thanks, Marinette!"

 

"No problem." Marinette settled onto the broom, then backed it up so Rose could slip on as well. "See you in a few seconds, Nino!"

 

Rose felt herself starting to breathe faster, but when she put her hands around Marinette's waist the other girl was as solid as a rock, and when she looked slightly to one side she could see the calm, confident face of her girlfriend. "She won't drop you," Juleka murmured. "Because she knows if she does I'll haunt her _forever_." She waggled her hands. "Ooooohhh..."

 

And even as the broom took off, Rose couldn't help but giggle--and she heard Marinette doing the same. 

 

They reached the top of the church without incident, Juleka flanking them on their left and Nino on their right, and settled down on top of the tower--where Rose saw, with a total lack of surprise, that Kim and Alix were arm-wrestling again while the others cheered them on. Before she could move closer to the others, though, Marinette laid a hand on hers. "Juleka," she said. "Could you give us a minute?"

 

Juleka looked puzzled for a moment, but she said, "Sure," and began to drift towards the others, not even bothering with pretending to walk now that they were on top of the tower and far away from any people that might be watching. "Go, Alix!" she called. "You can beat him!"

 

Marinette smiled at that, then turned back to Rose. "Are you alright? You seemed a little... off... back at Les Deux Magots. I didn't want to say anything, but..."

 

"No, it's okay." Rose managed a smile. "Juleka wanted to try the chocolate, and I've been looking for a spell to make her corporal again so she taste and touch and hug things, but I haven't found one I can actually use."

 

"She can possess people, right?" Marinette's brow wrinkled. "The dead aren't really my specialty, but I'm pretty sure I've read about ghosts doing that. Can't you just let her possess you and eat things using your body? Or if that won't work for some reason, I'd be happy to let her possess me and--"

 

Rose shook her head. "She can possess someone, but that doesn't mean she can sense what they sense. I'd have to cast a spell for her to do that, and most of the ones I know that would work would also hurt the person being possessed. There's one that just exhausts the possess-ee for a while, but even that..." she sighed. "Juleka doesn't want to put someone in bed for a couple days just so she can learn what a donut or a cheesecake taste like, and I don't either."

 

Marinette smiled gently. "I understand. But just keep in mind that, if you change your mind, I could use an excuse for some bedrest." She put a hand to her head. "Oh, Miss Bustier, I really wanted to go to that assembly where Principal Damocles tells us all about what interspecies relations were like when _he_ was a little owlet, but I was just so tired! Honest!" When Rose giggled, she reached out and put a hand on the other girl's shoulder. "Seriously. Maybe not as a recurring thing, but if you and Juleka wanted to try that spell out, I"d be happy to volunteer."

 

"Thanks," said Rose. She didn't think they'd be taking Marinette up on it--forcing the other girl to spend three or four days napping would be mean, after all, even if Marinette volunteered--but it was nice for the other girl to offer. "You're a good friend."

 

Marinette grinned at her before leading Rose over to the rest of the kids. Rose arrived just in time to see Max cross his arms. "Because if your arm gets ripped off I'll have to stitch it back on again, of course."

 

"Well, then I'll owe you a favor!" said Kim. "I'll--"

 

"You already owe me six and a half favors," Max responded. "Including one from last week after that raven plucked your eye out."

 

"That raven was a jerk!" protested Kim. "And--"

 

But whatever else he was going to say was lost when Alix suddenly shouted and slammed his hand down onto the tower roof. Kim yelped, and when he pulled his hand up it was dangling by a few scraps of skin; Alix had almost ripped it off. He blinked, then turned to Max. "So, seven and a half favors, right?"

 

Max sighed as Alix cheered and the others laughed. "Fine..."

 

"Alright!" Adrien called as the arm wrestling match broke up. "You're probably all wondering why I called you here--"

 

"No kidding," murmured Chloe. Her features had resumed their vaguely cat-like appearance now that she had discarded her glamour, and she even held her royal scepter loosely in one hand. "We _could_ have gone to see XY. Or the opera; something with _class_. Or--"

 

"It's because tonight is a very special night!" said Adrien, striding past the front group of students and slinging an arm around Nino's shoulders. "Tonight is the night Nino laughs at the moon!"

 

Nino blinked. "Wait. What?"

 

"The moon!" repeated Adrien. "I know it tries to _look_ all imposing, but tonight you're going to see how silly it is. And I'm going to help you, by--"

 

"What, making a total fool of yourself in the moonlight?" jeered Alix.

 

Adrien blinked. "How'd you guess?"

 

Rose couldn't help bursting into laughter at that, despite the height which was still making her stomach turn a bit, and she saw most of the other students laughing as well. Even Sabrina was giggling, though Chloe was doing an impressive job of maintaining her usual 'I didn't get my way' scowl. As they calmed, though, Nino stepped forwards. "Thanks, man, but you didn't need to do this. I'm fine--"

 

"Ah, ah, ah!" Adrien wagged a finger at him. "No friend of Adrien Agreste should be prevented from going outside by a stupid moon! And I'm going to prove it." He strode up to the eastern edge of the tower, which faced the eastern tower across a long gap. Then he spread his hands wide. "But first I'm going to cast a _remarkable_ bit of cat-magic. Prepare to be amazed!" He waved his hands melodramatically, gestured towards the opposing tower, shouted what Rose recognized as Words of Power, and--

 

A wooden plank appeared in the space between the towers, one end barely resting on the western tower, the other on the eastern one. It was about as wide as a streetcurb and looked perfectly smooth, with nothing separating the plank itself from the long drop below. Rose's stomach twisted as she guessed at what he was going to do. "Um, you're not going to walk on that... right?"

 

"Au contraire! I, Adrien Agreste, am going to walk out to the middle of the plank!" Adrien declared, putting one foot on the board. "And then, under the light of the waxing moon, before all of you, I... am going to make Nino laugh!" And without further ado--and without reacting to the fact that many of the other kids, Juleka included, were already laughing--he dashed out onto the board.

 

"Woah." Nino's eyes were wide as Adrien scampered with his usual feline grace over the plank. "Dude's crazy," he said, looking back at the others. "Totally whack."

 

Alya clapped him on the back. "Nah, he just wants to cheer you up." She then grabbed Nino's shoulders and spun him around. "So watch, okay?"

 

Rose smiled at the scene, but then Adrien called to her. "Hey, Rose! I might need a couple assistants. Churches usually have a lot of spirits hanging around; can you make a couple visible? Maybe some playful ones?"

 

"Playful spirits?" Rose wasn't sure what Adrien was up to, but she knew that he wouldn't be doing this if he didn't have a plan, so she drew a piece of chalk from her pocket and began sketching one of the simplest summoning circles she knew. It was then the work of just a few moments to reach beyond the veil of life or death, see the spirits in the area--Nino was right, there were a lot of them--and find a couple wispy forms that moved with the gleeful energy of young children. It took just a bit more effort to call to them, and then both were rushing through the rift she'd carved and up to Earth. As they appeared in front of her, she turned back to Adrien. "They'll only be here for a few minutes, so you should really quickly ask them politely to do whatever you need and--"

 

Adrien stuck out his tongue and blew a giant raspberry at the spirits.

 

Rose gaped as the spirits seemed to glance at each other, then leapt up and chased at him in a manner reminding Rose of how Manon Chamack--a little kid Marinette babysat--had once chased the witch around to get some puppet she had crafted. Both spirits swirled in the air and raced at Adrien, who affected a look of mock terror, and then leapt at him with his hands curled like claws--

 

Passed harmlessly through them--

 

And then faceplanted on the plank in such a comically-overwrought manner that Rose couldn't help but burst into laughter with the rest of her friends.

 

Adrien jumped up and, somehow not falling, swiveled around to face the spirits again. He let out a loud yell and then began flailing his arms as he ran towards them, but the spirits simply moved out of the way and one--the cheekier of the two, Rose guessed--slapped him on the back. Rose _knew_ the blow would be even less substantial than the tingling sensations Juleka could cause, but Adrien still yelped and did an actual tumble as if he'd been sandbagged. He only stopped when he was lying flat on his back, limbs dangling over empty space, and the spirits sitting smugly on top of his chest. "You think you've won?" called Adrien in the kind of booming, melodramatic voice a Saturday-morning cartoon villain might have thought was over the top. "I'll show you! Watch this!" 

 

What followed was half an incredible display of agility, as Adrien bounced all over the board, swung beneath it, flipped above it, and in general showcased a remarkable series of gymnastic moves, and half a clown show. The spirits got the best of Adrien time and again, slipping away from every attack and leaving Adrien to flail helplessly, or tricking him into looking in just the wrong direction before one pinched or poked him and he jumped a foot in the air. Adrien even once announced that he 'wasn't playing games anymore' and leapt at the spirits in a display of raw ferocity... which ended with him dangling by one foot from the plank with a forlorn, hangdog expression on his face. The entire routine took about ten minutes, and Rose didn't stop laughing for the entire time.

 

Nor, she saw whenever she glanced over, did Nino.

 

The werewolf didn't seem afraid of the moon at all anymore. Instead he just laughed uproariously as Adrien made a complete fool of himself in the bright moonlight. The others were laughing too, Rose saw, but none as hard as Nino... and when she compared his glee to the nervousness she'd seen before, she couldn't help but feel a warm sense of satisfaction that she'd been able to help.

 

When Adrien finally finished, he took an elaborate bow and directed everyone to clap for the spirits as well. Mollified, the two wispy ghosts did so before flying back to Rose and murmuring to her about how they'd had so much fun and could they do this more often? Rose pledged to see what she could do--there were a couple NeverNever circus troops that used ghost clowns and that Miss Bustier might be able to help her get in touch with--before the spirits faded back into the realm of the dead. Then she began clapping again along with the others, while Juleka called out how Adrien was "So awesome!" and Nino and Alya cracked jokes about silly cats getting stuck up trees--or between towers, in this case.

 

Upon returning to the tower, Adrien went right up to Nino. "So," he said in a dramatic tone. "Got some better associations with the moon now?"

 

"I don't know about 'associations,'" said Nino with a goofy grin. "But I feel better, yeah. I guess the moon's not as scary when it's lighting up a big silly cat. A big silly cat with some totally sweet moves too." He bumped fists with Adrien. "Thanks, man."

 

"Don't mention it. And hey, maybe I could teach you some of those sweet moves." Adrien grinned. "You have no idea how many chicks dig guys that can dangle off of ledges by a single foot."

 

Rose let out a soft sigh of relief as the others talked. She was happy Nino looked better--she really was--but it would be nice to get down off the tower. "Well," she said. "We should--"

 

Before she could finish, though, Marinette pushed past Nino and smirked at Adrien. "Pfft. Dangling is one thing. Want to see what _I_ can do under the moonlight?" 

 

"Maybe." Adrien crossed his arms. "But only if it's as awesome as what _I_ can do. What'cha got, Mari?"

 

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Marinette teased as she slipped past him and stepped onto the plank, broom in hand. "Ready to be amazed, Nino?"

 

Nino, still grinning, waved a hand. "Thanks, but I'm already feeling better, you don't have to--"

 

"Yeah, but I want to. It'll be fun!" Marinette grinned. "And besides, you're our friend--we should all help you when you need it." She grinned at the others. "And if anyone else wants to show something off, let's all go for it! I'm sure between all of us, we could put a certain kitty in his place. And we'll all help prove to Nino that the moon's nothing to be afraid of."

 

Rose felt a chill that had nothing to do with the autumn cold. _All go for it? But that means--unless everyone says no--_

 

"Put me in my place?" Adrien turned up his nose. "It's well known that cat sidhe are the most graceful and elegant creatures in all the realms. Nobody can match us when it comes to dancing on planks!"

 

"I wasn't aware there was so much competition in that category," drawled Juleka.

 

Adrien began to respond, but then Kim shouldered his way forwards. "Sure, I'll do something to help Nino out," he said. "And show off how cool I am, of course."

 

"Me too!" said Alix with a predatory gleam in her eyes. "I know just what I'll do too. Oh, this is going to be sweet!"

 

Rose looked away. They _were_ all going to have to participate, she knew--even if Marinette wasn't saying it was mandatory, Rose would look like a total jerk if she was the only one not to do something to make Nino laugh and help him beat what was left of his fear of the moon. And besides, if she admitted she was scared of heights Chloe would tease her _forever_ \--and probably Juleka too, for dating a 'cowardly' girlfriend, which Rose absolutely refused to allow. So she had no real choice besides going out on that thin little plank and putting on a show, no matter how terrified she was.

 

Juleka turned to her with a concerned look and then extended her hand, which Rose gratefully took. But even the familiar touch of her girlfriend couldn't calm her thundering heart.

 

#

 

The fireworks that Marinette cast from her wand burst through the sky, lighting up the night with some of the brightest colors Rose had ever seen. Some of the sparklers near the end were even a lovely, vibrant shade of pink that would normally have Rose grinning with delight and begging Marinette to teach her how to cast it. But no matter how gorgeous the colors of Marinette's fireworks, or how elegantly they wove around each other in the air, or how awesome Marinette was when she hopped onto her broom and proceeded to trace Nino's name in the sky with sparks shooting from its tail, Rose couldn't get her mind off of what was coming next. At the end, she clapped with the rest of them--and did note how loud Nino was clapping and how bright his grin was--but she barely even noticed when Marinette returned to the tower. Her eyes were locked on the open space in front of her and the long drop below.

 

After Marinette was Mylene, who knelt on the plank and grew dozens of brilliant flowers out of the wood, all glowing with some kind of magical light. Next was Alix, who let out a wild whoop before zipping off the edge of the tower, racing down the wall, and zooming in circles around the square so quickly that she kicked up a windstorm which lifted her back up to the plank where she stuck a perfect three-point landing. And after _her_ was Nathanael, who scratched a pentagram on top of the tower and summoned a horse-like construct with red eyes and long, narrow, serrated teeth, then rode it out on the plank. He got about two-thirds of the way across--

 

Until he fell off.

 

Rose gasped and clutched at the arm of the nearest person she could reach, but before half a second had passed she saw Alix blazing off the edge of the tower again, now moving faster than Rose had ever seen her go. Everyone rushed to the tower's edge--Rose feeling like she was about to throw up--just in time to see Alix leap across empty space, grab Nathanael, and use the wind to blast them across to the other tower while the horse-construct smashed to the ground below and burst into a puddle of ectoplasm. "Sorry," called Nathan as Alix led him back across the plank. "I guess I screwed that up..."

 

"You kidding?" Nino was grinning. "Dude, you were able to ride that horse monster thing way further than I could. And Alix was primo as well with the rescue. You both rock."

 

Nathanel blushed at that, and Alix smirked. "Yeah, tell me something I don't know, alright?" She clapped her hands as she turned to the others. "Alright, who's next?"

 

"Rose." The necromancer jumped about a foot in the air, but it wasn't Alix calling her out; the wind elemental was instead pointing to Kim and telling him to get his 'rotting butt' out there. Rose instead turned to see Marinette--who, she realized, was the person whose arm she had grabbed--and Juleka standing next to her. The other witch looked at her with concern in her eyes. "Are you okay?"

 

Rose managed to force a nod. "Just peachy!" she said. "Just, you know, thinking of what to do. What spirits to call, or..."

 

Juleka caught her eyes and gave her a level look. She said nothing, but she didn't need to; Rose could never lie when her girlfriend was looking at her like that. So--after just sneaking a quick peak to make sure that Chloe was focused on Adrien instead of her--she lowered her head. "Sorry," she said. "I'm just a little nervous."

 

"Don't worry," said Marinette. "I mean, if you fall, Alix will catch you, right?"

 

"She'll try," murmured Rose. "I... I'm not good with heights, Marinette."

 

"Then you don't need to participate," said the other witch at once. "Nino won't mind--and besides, you already helped with Adrien's thing. Which was really cool, by the way, how you found just the right spirits and got them here so--"

 

She stopped as Rose shook her head. "No, I have to," she insisted. "Nino's my friend too. He's funny, and he's nice, and he always knows the best music." She smiled slightly, thinking back to one time when a ritual she'd been planning for two months had gone awry because Chloe had quietly replaced her pure sunstone with an impure variant as revenge for doing better than her on a test. Rose had been so upset she'd barely been able to see straight, but Nino had intercepted her before she'd confronted Chloe--probably tipped off by Juleka--and given her the perfect mix tape to calm her down and help her move past it. "I _have_ to get over it and help him."

 

Which was easier said than done, of course. When she looked down she could swear the tower had grown a few meters since she'd last checked. (Meanwhile, Kim was now walking out on the plank and laughing off Max's complaints about how if he fell then Max would need to spend _days_ stitching him back together). 

 

"I'll help, then, just like before" said Marinette as she took Rose's hand. "Nino won't need my flight charm now that we're all on the roof. I'll take it back and give it to you, and then even if you fall off you won't--"

 

"No!" Rose said, surprised by her own vehemence. Marinette and Juleka both flinched, and Rose blushed again. "I mean--no, sorry, I really appreciate it Marinette, but I can't. Chloe..." She took a moment to continue. "She's been bugging both me and Juleka so much, and I just know that if I look like I need help to do something everyone else in the class can do, she'll get even worse. After I first summoned Juleka she went on and on about how only a really pathetic ghost could be summoned by a 'lame' necromancer like me, and I don't want her to start up again. And if I don't do it at all, not only will I be letting down Nino, but then Chloe will just say Juleka's dating a coward. I can't let that happen either."

 

Juleka drifted over to her. "Rose..." she murmured, slipping her hand into the other girl's. "I don't care about that. If you feel safer--"

 

"But I do!" insisted Rose. "Because you're an _amazing_ ghost, the best one I've ever met--the best _person_ I've ever met--and she shouldn't be saying those things about you!"

 

The two looked at each other in silence for a moment, both blushing, before Juleka suddenly moved forwards and wrapped Rose in as best a hug as she could. Rose stiffened for a moment before pushing her arms through Juleka as well, and the two embraced silently for a few seconds.

 

When Rose eventually turned back to Marinette, she saw the other witch looking away as if she wanted to give them privacy. "I could be discrete," she said in a gentle tone. "I mean, if I just give you the flying charm right now while nobody's looking and you say its yours later, I won't mind--I can make another. Or--"

 

Juleka stiffened, startling Rose, and then smiled. "Marinette," she said. "Would you give us a minute?"

 

The other witch looked confused, but nodded and said, "Ok. Just let me know if you change your mind, though--I'm happy to help if you want it." She winked at them before turning and striding over to Chloe and Adrien. "Hey Chloe!" she called. "What are _you_ going to do?"

 

"Me? Go out on that plank?" The sphinx sniffed. "As if."

 

"C'mon, Chloe," drawled Marinette. "Not afraid of a little falling cat-astrophe, are you?"

 

Adrien blinked. "Hey, cat puns are my thing!"

 

Rose smiled slightly as Marinette joked with Adrien and snarked at Chloe, knowing that the witch was deliberately keeping Chloe distracted so she wouldn't notice Rose's fear. Before she could comment, though, Juleka floated around her and smiled. "There's an easy answer to this," she murmured. "Just let me help you. Secretly. So Chloe never finds out." She slipped her hand into Rose's, and as Rose watched it suddenly twitched upwards under the ghost's control. "If you're worried you'll lose your balance, I can walk onto the plank for you. All you'll have to do is your magic tricks; I'll make sure you don't fall off."

 

For a moment, Rose's smile swelled and lit up her whole face--but then it faded almost as quickly. "I..." she murmured. "Juleka, I can't..."

 

"What?" Juleka frowned. "Why not?"

 

"Because..." Rose looked around but saw no convenient distractions, even Kim was just standing on the plank with a blank look on his face as he seemingly tried to figure out what he might be able to do. "Juleka, I... I can't ask you to help me, I mean, I already let you down once tonight, and--"

 

Juleka flinched as if startled. "Let me down?"

 

"With the chocolate thing and--" 

 

Rose would have said more, a lot more. She would have described how many nice things Juleka did for her on a daily basis, how many nice things she'd said and done that night alone, and how Rose felt terrible for not being able to do the one thing Juleka wanted. She would have said she wished she was just a little better as a necromancer, able to make Juleka corporal without needing kava root--or that she were smart enough to find kava root on a regular basis--so that Juleka could experience more of what the world had to offer, more of what she _deserved_ to experience. She would have said all that and more besides.

 

But she didn't, because Juleka slipped a ghostly finger through her lips and they went numb with delicious, tingling sparks.

 

"Rose," said Juleka in a soft, gentle voice. "Do you remember when we first met and I asked you if you were one of those necromancers that summons ghosts just to use them in experiments or force them to do things for you?"

 

The necromancer nodded; not a day went by when she didn't think back to how wonderful her first meeting with Juleka had been. "I said no," she managed once her lips were working again. "I said I'm not that kind of necromancer. I don't want slave ghosts, I wanted a friend, a partner--"

 

"Right. We're friends. Partners. A team." Juleka smiled at Rose. "That's what I want too, Rose. Or did you think I'm the kind of ghost that just wants to possess some hapless necromancer and run around town?"

 

Rose couldn't help but giggle at the thought of Juleka possessing her and having her body do Juleka things--like getting a gothic makeover that probably wouldn't go well with her pink motif. "Of course not--"

 

"Because we're friends," finished Juleka. "And friends help each other when they need it. They don't keep track of favors like bankers. You didn't let me down earlier, you don't owe me anything to 'make up' for it--but even if you had and did, I'd still want to help you now, because that's what friends do." She leaned close to Rose. " _Please_ let me help you, okay?"

 

Rose was silent for a long moment. She still felt bad, leaning on Juleka while not giving anything in return... but if she really loved Juleka as much as she said she did, she would trust her. If Juleka really wanted to help, if she didn't feel used or put-upon, Rose couldn't say 'no' to that. "Alright," she said quietly. "Let's do it--oof!" Juleka had hugged her, arms passing through her stomach and causing her to tingle all over. "Juleka!"

 

"Sorry." Juleka smiled a little, looking abashed. "Sometimes when I'm with you I feel almost... you know. Alive again." 

 

Rose's blush was the only response she could make, but it said more than Rose could have in an entire speech.

 

They returned to the group just as Kim began his actual performance--which turned out to be belching the alphabet, annoying most of the girls (Alix excluded) but reducing Adrien and Nino to roaring laughter. Max, though, seemed more bemused than anything. "You drank one of my fuel bioserums," he said in a tone of absolute certainty. "Before we left."

 

Kim shrugged, then let out an epic belch for the letter 'x.' "What? You said they would gave a lot of energy, and I wanted to challenge Alix to a couple bets today--"

 

"All of which you lost," called out Alix. "Bio-whatevers or no."

 

"Well, yeah, but--" Kim belched a 'y' before continuing. "I just borrowed one. It's no big deal, right?"

 

Max sighed. "No, but I'll have to make another, which means the 'let's see what happens if we hook your heart up to an electric dynamo' experiment will have to wait."

 

"What?" complained Kim as everyone laughed. "But I wanted to be turbocharged this weekend!"

 

"Sorry," said Max primly. "Fuel serum first."

 

Rose hesitated. Juleka was nowhere to be seen--she'd gone transparent, Rose guessed, in preparation for possessing her--but Max's comments reminded her of something she'd been thinking about regarding Juleka. "Max," she said, before having to pause as Kim reached 'z' and started on numerals. "Um, that fuel stuff--what does it do?"

 

"It's energy, basically," said Max. "But--and you're not the first person to ask me this--I can't just give it out. It has to be very carefully tuned for each person that might use it. Kim's an exception, since he's dead and excess energy won't kill him, but if anyone living besides me drinks it, bad things could happen."

 

"I see." Rose was silent for a moment longer while Kim finished up, but when the zombie began walking back to the tower--amidst both laughter and jeers--she turned back to Max. "Kim's a very interesting creation. I'd love to study him sometime."

 

"Sure, as long as I can study Juleka."

 

Rose wrinkled her nose. "The last time you wanted to study her, you trapped her in a ghost-proof box for a few hours to run tests. She said she was _really_ bored."

 

"Science is often boring," responded Max, before quailing under Rose's glare. "...but next time I'll make sure to include audiobooks or something for her to listen to. Sound good?"

 

Rose smiled. "Then I think she might be willing. I'll ask her and let you know when she's free--and when I'm free to study Kim too." She looked back at the zombie as he stepped off the plank. "Think I'll be able to make Nino laugh more than he did?"

 

"No," said Max at once.

 

"Why not?" Rose teased. "Alphabet burping's not _that_ funny."

 

Any other student might have come up with a white lie--well, Chloe excepted, she delighted in using the truth like a scalpel to cut whoever she could--but Max seemed constitutionally incapable of telling an untruth, even to spare someone else's feelings. He said it was part of his scientist's code to 'always be true to the data,' which Rose thought was a little silly, but for once she was grateful for it because it let her anticipate his reaction. And indeed, Max evaluated her for a moment before saying, "Sorry, Rose, but... I don't think you'll be performing."

 

"What?" said Rose in mock confusion. "Why not?"

 

Max tapped his glasses, rotating a couple of the gears surrounding one lens and seeming to focus on something. "Your heart rate is up, as is your perspiration," he said. "And I'm detecting slight tremors in your arms and legs. You're very nervous, Rose. I'm fairly certain you won't go onto the plank at all."

 

Rose was nervous, it was true--but her girlfriend was supporting her, just like Marinette had earlier, and she knew she wouldn't fail. "You're sure?" she teased. "Care to make a bet on it?"

 

Max raised an eyebrow. "You seem to have mistaken me for my zombie roommate."

 

"No, I just thought you said you were _certain_." Rose spun in a lazy circle before turning back to Max with a teasing grin. "How's this: if I do a performance on the plank that makes Nino happy, you'll owe me a favor. But if I don't, I'll... I'll handle all of Kim's repairs for the next month." She grinned. "Sound good?"

 

Max frowned. "Do you actually know how to sew up a corpse?"

 

"Sure. Most necromancers start by raising zombies, and that's easiest when the zombies are intact." In truth, Rose wasn't terribly fast at it, and if she actually lost this bet then most of her next month would be spent restitching Kim. But she was sure she wouldn't lose. "So?"

 

"Hmm..." Max was silent for a long moment before talking again, and Rose knew he was surely evaluating her with the sensors in his glasses to reassure himself that she was just as terrified as he thought (which, fortunately, she was). "Then yes--but on one condition. _You_ have to do the performance. I don't want you summoning or using Juleka to do it for you, or one of the other witches helping you out."

 

"Sure thing." Rose smiled at Max and shook his hand. "Deal."

 

When she walked back to the plank, she was still sweating and her arms were shaking slightly, but neither were as bad as before. If she could pull this off, she thought, she might be able to help not just Nino but also Juleka like she'd hoped all along... but of course she'd actually have to pull it off first. "I'll go out on the plank next," she announced, quickly doing a mental run-through of the spells she'd need. "And once I'm in the middle I'll show you all the best performance of the night! Everybody ready?" 

 

A storm of claps and cheers answered her, Marinette's among the loudest as usual. "Go Rose!" she called. "We know you'll be awesome!"

 

Rose flashed one final smile at them. Then she took a breath, raised one foot, and set it on the plank to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Church of Saint-Sulpice is a real landmark in Paris. You can learn more about it at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saint-Sulpice,_Paris


	3. The Dance and the Picnic

As soon as Rose put her weight on the board, she felt the tingly numbness that meant Juleka was entering her body.

 

They'd done this a few times before, but never for long, and it was still a weird sensation even for the experienced necromancer. Her entire body suddenly shuddered and went very cold, like she'd been dunked in ice, and the world seemed to gray slightly in front of her, an effect which her books had told her was a side effect of letting a dead spirit get so close to her heart, mind, and soul. When  her foot shifted slightly, she could barely feel the plank beneath her, and for one horrible moment she could only imagine herself slipping on the plank and not feeling anything amiss until it was too late to catch her balance.

 

But then her foot rose and landed further on the plank, seemingly of its own accord, and Juleka began walking Rose across the board that bridged the towers.

 

The first few moments were utter terror for Rose, even with Juleka whispering soft reassurances in her ears, but after several steps with no falls--and no sensations of wobbling, slipping, or even breeze, as Juleka had numbed them all--she was able to let out the mental breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "You're doing really good!" she whispered to Juleka, noting that the ghost had left her control of her mouth. "Thank you so much!" 

 

"No sweat." Juleka's voice sounded a little more energetic and firm than usual as she walked Rose another couple steps. "You want me to give you back a little control?" 

 

Rose's thoughts screeched to a halt, and she realized she'd likely have fallen off the platform in blind panic if Juleka hadn't been in the driver's seat. "A little control?" she repeated. "I'm not sure--"

 

"How about one pinkie finger?" Juleka asked. "Just one. Think you can move your pinkie around without falling down?"

 

Rose blinked. That seemed... actually doable. And kind of silly, which made her mouth curve into a soft smile. "Okay. I think I can handle one pinkie."

 

"Then here we go!" And Rose could feel her pinkie again. She bent it experimentally, didn't fall over, and her smile grew a bit. "Let me know when you're ready for another finger--or maybe a toe," Juleka continued. "Although that might be too much, Miss tripping-over-her-own-zombie-cat--"

 

"Hey!" laughed Rose, almost forgetting where she was. "That happened once! And it was a very sneaky cat."

 

Juleka relinquished a couple more fingers at a time as they progressed, and then Rose's full hands, and by the time Rose had reached the center of the platform she was able to move most of the upper half of her body. Then Juleka turned her around--a move which was still a little scary, though Juleka's firm control of her lower body was as steady as ever and helped keep Rose from panicking--and the necromancer could smile back at the group. "Alright!" she called out. "Here... we... go!"

 

She drew her wand--holly and ash, with a vein of rose quartz running through it and ground-up flamingo feathers mixed into the wood--from her sleeve in a well practiced motion, then traced a pentagram in the air and drew upon the cold energy of death and decay that ran through the veins of all necromancers. The air around her seemed to shudder as she again saw the spirits, hundreds if not thousands all around the church. She tilted her head back and projected a little more magic into herself so she could speak to them through the veil of life and death. "Who," she began in a bright, calm, experienced voice, "wants to dance?"

 

And as it turned out, a lot of them did.

 

Two dozen spirits flowed towards Rose and she directed more magic at the veil, guiding select spirits through it without tearing it open and letting them all run rampant. Then, before they could escape into the city, she began to trace a path of magic through the air with her wand. It wasn't much magic, but it had just a faint hint of the realm of the dead in it--like all her magic did--and wherever she sent it, the spirits were drawn in that direction. She cast three rings of magic around herself in total, carefully shunting an equal number of spirits into each one, and then...

 

Rose Lavillant helped the ghosts to dance.

 

She urged the ghosts on with magic, guiding them through turns and spins, feeling how they wanted to move--some quickly, with the energy of youth, others more slowly and in pairs, couples that had likely been lovers when they were alive--and guided each according to their preference. The faster ones swirled around her head and body in wide loops, glittering silver in the moonlight and leaving little streaks trailing behind them like miniature comets. The slower ones maneuvered through smaller loops which rotated around the paths of the larger ones, but though the spirits passed within a hair's width of each other, none of them ever collided. And in the middle of them all was Rose, moving her wand like an orchestra conductor as she guided them all through their own paths without the slightest deviation in any direction.

 

Rose began to move herself, trusting Juleka to keep her steady as she followed the ghosts, bending when they went low and stretching when they went high as if they were drawing her with them. Her wand sped up, as did the ghosts, and so did her motions as all three whipped through the cold night air. Then she drew deep on her magic and sent a little bit more into each ghost, changing them all into different colors as per their inclination--one particularly feminine-feeling spirit went pink, two masculine ones went blue, one extremely vigorous one became the bright yellow of the shining sun--and grinned as the vibrant, glowing ghosts and spirits streaked around her in a dazzling array of colors.

 

Distantly, she was aware of the others clapping, but she let this slip out of her mind as she prepared for the finale. One final burst of magic to strengthen the ghosts just enough that they could create a little wind, something to blow back the others' hair and wow them with their power--

 

But the ghosts didn't blast their wind at the others. Instead they gathered around her, and as they moved closer Rose could feel their desires. She could sense how grateful they were to have one last dance, up high in the moonlight over the glittering city. How they wanted to thank her the only way they could, by giving her just a taste of what they were experiencing. How they wanted to lift her high, as high as they could fly, and let her dance with them in the sky before she fell back to Earth.

 

For one moment, Rose felt a bolt of pure terror. But then she heard Juleka--who of course could sense the other ghosts too--whispering into her ear, "I've got you, don't worry!" And back on the tower, she could see Marinette, Adrien, and Nathanael with their wands held by their sides, all apparently casual but all clearly ready to intervene if she fell. Her friends had her, she thought. She could trust them.

 

"Okay!" she said to the ghosts, and they took her up.

 

For a moment, she sensed nothing, but then she felt how they were gathering under her arms and around her legs, and with a yelp she was lifted a few feet into the air before she began to rotate in time with the ghosts. The world spun crazily around her, and for a moment she wondered who was so silly as to be laughing at the scene, and then she realized it was her. Lights twinkled below her, the three-quarters full moon shone high above, and her ghosts carried her through several flips and turns as she waved brightly-shining wand.

 

"Awesome!" screamed Nino as he clapped wildly. "Yo, Rose, you totally rock!"

 

"Yeah!" Adrien added. "Rose, you're fantastic!" Besides him, Chloe muttered something about show-offs, but Adrien didn't seem to hear. "That's amazing!"

 

When the spirits' strength finally began to flag, Rose had them gently guide her back down to the plank. They didn't quite make it--several faded out of existence just before they would have touched back down--but though Rose dropped suddenly, she managed to stick the landing and not fall off the plank. "Thanks, Jules!" she murmured as she raised her wand and gently dismissed the remaining spirits. "Couldn't have done it without you."

 

She heard the sound of Juleka's soft, gentle laughter beside her, and it was like music in her ears.

 

When she got back across the plank, she smiled and accepted the congratulations of the others--Nino was particularly effusive, saying how she'd looked epic in the moonlight and it was worth being outside now if people could put on performances like that--before turning to Max. In her mind she marshaled her arguments that she had technically won the bet; yes, Juleka had kept control of her legs the whole time, but all the magic and performance work had really been in her arms and casting, and the bet had only required that her _performance_ was her own. (If Max and the others rejected this, of course, she'd probably have to sew up Kim for a month, but she'd take that risk if there was even a chance she could make Juleka happy). Before she could say anything, however, Marinette--with a grin on her face that could have lit up the whole city--pointed behind her. "Uh, Rose, you might want to look behind you."

 

"Oh, did I miss a spirit?" Rose turned. "I'm sorry, little ghost, I--"

 

But instead of the church spirits, she saw Juleka. Floating several feet behind her. And not, she noted, managing her legs.

 

"...wait," she said quietly. "You--when did you move? If you were keeping my legs steady--"

 

"Oh, I got out of your body as soon as you began to summon the other spirits," said Juleka with an amused grin. "I figured you had things under control."

 

Rose was silent for a few moments. "You weren't controlling my legs?" she asked at last.

 

"Not once you started dancing. That was all you." Juleka moved closer. "I _knew_ you could do it. You just needed a little confidence, and a little help to start. So I worked your legs at first, gave you back control little by little... and by the time you were casting, it was all you." She smiled. "Way proud of you, Rose."

 

Rose blinked, struggling to understand. According to Juleka, she'd performed her spirit dance on a narrow plank no longer than a street curb suspended _very_ high above the ground, so high that Rose had barely been able to look down before. And not only had she not fallen, she hadn't even noticed. She'd just done it.

 

She'd been able to do it.

 

And she'd never even have considered the possibility without Juleka and her friends.

 

She grinned, tears coming to her eyes, and then Juleka was flinging herself into her arms--through them, even--and the two were hugging as best as a human and a ghost could while the others clapped and went 'awww' and cracked jokes. "Best," she murmured. "Night. Ever."

 

"You're telling me," said someone else, and it took Rose a moment to realize it was Nino. The werewolf looked totally at ease despite the bright moonlight, and when he turned to face her directly she saw the glee on his face. "I've had so much fun, guys. I didn't... I mean, even once I learned about the College, I didn't think I'd ever be happy going out at night again, you know? But this was _beyond_ rad." He clapped his hands together. "You guys are the best."

 

That prompted another round of clapping and laughter, and more than a few backslaps (and a couple of hugs between Ivan, who was still holding one of the flowers Mylene had grown, and Mylene herself). Rose beamed. This really _had_ been a perfect night. She'd done it, she was happy and she'd made everyone happy and there was nothing else left to do...

 

Except for one thing, she remembered as her smile somehow grew even brighter. "Max!" she chirped as she finally got up. "Max, I'm ready to call in my favor!"

 

Max sighed, but after Kim and Alix gave him knowing glances, and Alya a more predatory one--the kitsune was insistent that nobody break any debts around her, even once trapping Chloe in some illusory maze when she'd tried stiffing Sabrina--the mad scientist bowed his head. "Alright. What do you want?"

 

Rose winked at him, then turned to the others and clapped her hands. "Excuse me!" she said. "We've got one more place to go tonight--so let's get off this roof, put our glamours back on, and get going!"

 

#

 

The Luxembourg Gardens were a set of lawns, water features, and flower plots that took up multiple city blocks. They were locked up at night, of course, but Rose and her friends were magic and it would take a lot more than fences or gates to stop them. As such, it didn't take them long at all to get inside and spread out the picnic blanket that Marinette had conjured up. "Alright," said Rose. "Ready?"

 

Juleka and Max both nodded, the former noticeably happier than the latter. As they did so, Alya and Nino carefully laid out the spread of food. There were the s'mores, of course--no campfire was needed when Ivan, the magma golem, was around--and chocolates and cheeses from an all-night grocery store, and sandwiches on fresh French bread from the famous Cafe de Flore (which Alix had reached just before closing and hadn't left until they'd made her food), and even a hamburger from McDonald's at Adrien's and Nino's insistence. And, of course, there was the most important element: the fresh thermos of Les Deux Magots chocolate in the middle.

 

"There," said Rose as she finished chalking the needed sigils onto the path where Max and Juleka were standing. "Just give me a minute--"

 

"Take all the time you want," drawled Max as the others asked. "I've got all night."

 

Juleka chuckled and rubbed her stomach. "Come on, Rose. I want to taste this chocolate!"

 

Casting the spell itself took about two minutes of chanting, and when Rose was done she sagged with exhaustion--she had already been running low on magic thanks to all the other spells she'd cast that night--but Marinette and Adrien caught her, and then she saw Juleka moving into Max. Max's body jerked a few times and sagged before his head looked up again. "I've got five minutes?" Juleka asked in Max's voice.

 

Rose nodded as Kim started a stopwatch. "Yep," she said. "Make them count!"

 

Juleka grinned with Max's face, then knelt in front of the picnic basket and grabbed the hot chocolate. She opened the top and took a whiff, mouth dropping slightly as the steam entered her nose. "Wow," she murmured. "I... sorry. I haven't smelled anything in so long, and--" She shook her head and took a sip.

 

For a moment, she was perfectly still.

 

And then she threw her head back and gulped down about a third of the mug in one swallow.

 

Rose and the others laughed as chocolate spilled out of her mouth and onto Max's front, where his glamour covered the pristine white lab coat they all knew was hidden beneath it. "So good!" she gasped. "Why didn't they have this when I was alive?"

 

"Hey, that's not all!" said Adrien. "Come on, you gotta try McDonald's! Everyone on Earth's tried McDonald's by this point! It's practically a tradition!"

 

Juleka took a bite of the burger, then several more before moving on to the sandwiches--then the s'mores--the artisanal chocolate--the array of cheeses. But every few bites she went back to the chocolate, which now coated much of Max's front. Rose knew she was grinning like a fool as her girlfriend enjoyed herself, but she couldn't help it and she wouldn't have stopped smiling even if she could have. She just cheered her girlfriend on as the ghost tasted her first meal in more than a century, and occasionally shouted advice like, "Try the cheese on the left with the round crackers, they go great together!" or "Dip the s'mores in the hot chocolate to make them even sweeter!"

 

The food was completely demolished by the time Kim's stopwatch beeped, signaling that Juleka would no longer be able to taste through Max's mouth, and then Juleka floated up out of Max while the mad scientist pushed himself to his feet. Max began to grouse about having to clean his lab coat, but though the others were gathering around him--to help him open the bottle of fuel bio-serum he was digging out of his backpack, or just to tease him for having chocolate and crumbs splattered all over himself--Rose only had eyes for one person. "Juleka," she said as the girl moved towards her. "How--"

 

Then she saw Juleka's smile that almost split her face in half. "That was amazing," she said. "I didn't know how much I missed it." She bowed her head. "Rose, thank you so much... you're the best. Seriously."

 

Rose moved up to her and put her hand through Juleka's. "You helped me get over my fear of heights--so you're _also_ the best, and I won't hear a word otherwise." She beamed. "And anytime you want to taste something else, you let me know. I'll make it happen." She held up a hand. "I swear."

 

"I know you will," said Juleka. "Because you're you." And the two embraced.

 

Minutes later, when they pulled apart, Nino was laughing merrily. "Yeah, dude," he was telling Adrien, "I told you--I feel fine now! Moon schmoon!" He flopped back onto the grass and stared at the moon as if daring it to shift him right then and there. "With you guys around, no way can that stupid rock scare me."

 

"Then," said Marinette as she clasped her hands together, "I'd say tonight was a big success!" 

 

"Was?" Adrien raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding, right? It's not even midnight yet--we got loads of time."

 

"To do what?" Nathanel asked.

 

Adrien turned at him and let his glamour slip just enough to let his cat ears show. "I seem to recall we were going to do a campfire," he said. "Where we'd make more s'mores... and play charades... and maybe tell some scary stories." He adopted a maniacal grin. "Fair warning, though, I'm the _best_ at telling scary stories. None of you'll be able to sleep tonight!"

 

"Oh yeah?" challenged Alix. "Bet mine's scarier."

 

"I'll take that bet!" yelled Kim.

 

And then they were all leaving the gardens, even Chloe, heading back towards the school and the courtyard where they'd have a campfire and continue what was already one of the best nights of Rose's life. Everything, she thought, had gone absolutely perfectly. And for all she knew the best was still yet to come.

 

She grinned up at her girlfriend, who smiled back at her, and the two moved a little closer together as they went back out into the streets of Paris.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Luxembourg Gardens are a real Parisian landmark. You can learn more about them here: http://en.parisinfo.com/paris-museum-monument/71393/Jardin-du-Luxembourg
> 
> Cafe de Flore is also a noted cafe in Paris. You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Café_de_Flore
> 
> That's all for this story, everyone. Hope you enjoyed!


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